Beacon Award

Menlo Park awarded for efforts addressing climate change

The Institute for Local Government and the Statewide Energy Efficiency Collaborative honored the City of Menlo Park with four Spotlight Awards for the city’s efforts to save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adopt policies and programs that promote sustainability. The awards were presented on Oct. 1, 2015, during the League of California Cities Annual Conference in San Jose. The City’s achievements were recognized as a part of its participation in the sustainability recognition program, the Beacon Program. Menlo Park received the following awards:

Silver Spotlight Award for 6% community GHG reductions

Platinum Spotlight Award for 20% agency energy savings

Platinum Spotlight Award for 27% natural gas savings

Gold Spotlight Award for sustainability best practices

“The Beacon Award program honors local agencies for innovative solutions that address climate change. The City of Menlo Park is a model of how to implement sustainability measures in a way that results in a more vibrant, healthy and prosperous community,” Martin Gonzalez, Director, institute for Local Government.

Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement

The City will strive to the extent economically feasible to reduce global-warming pollution, which involves taking actions in our own operations and community-wide, such as an inventory of global-warming emissions in City operations and in the community, carbon emissions reduction targets and a citywide action plan.

Climate action activities

Completed 2011 Climate Action Plan Assessment Report

Completed 2008 Municipal Greenhouse Gas Inventories

US Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement Signatory

Conserve-a-Scape program

The City of Menlo Park launched the Conserve-A-Scape program in 2014 in an effort to help the city’s residents curb water use. The program provides cost-effective landscape design consulting services to Menlo Park Municipal Water District customers participating in the City’s Lawn Be Gone turf replacement program.